page_title: 1885
section_title: January–March
hierarchical_section_title: 1885 / Events / January–March
caption_attribution_description: Washington Monument, Washington D.C., United States as viewed at twilight/dusk. Taken by myself with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L IS lens. Español: El Monumento a Washington al atardecer Magyar: A Washington emlékmű Polski: Pomnik Waszyngtona o zmierzchu 中文: 暮霭之中的华盛顿纪念碑，由佳能5D和24-105mm f/4L IS镜头拍摄。
context_page_description: 1885 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1885th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 885th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 19th century, and the 6th year of the 1880s decade. As of the start of 1885, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
context_section_description: January 3–4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam.
  January 4 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant, on Mary Gartside.
  January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan – Battle of Abu Klea: British troops defeat Mahdist forces.
  January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster.
  January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.
  January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.
  February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession.
  February 7 – The play La vida alegre y muerte triste by dramatist José Echegaray opens.
  February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
  February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stood at a level of 62.76, and represented the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.
  February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.
  February 23
  Sino-French War – Battle of Đồng Đăng: France gains an important victory over China, in the Tonkin region of modern-day Vietnam.
  An English executioner fails after several attempts to hang John Babbacombe Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
  February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the scramble for Africa.
  February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.
  March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
  March 4 – Grover Cleveland is sworn in, as the 22nd President of the United States.
  March 7 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is founded.
  March 14 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London.
  March 26
  Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia.
  The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake.
  First legal cremation in England: Mrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.
  March 30 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
  March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
caption: Feb. 21: Washington Monument dedicated.
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